The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday arrested Congress MLA in Chhattisgarh and former state excise minister Kawasi Lakhma in an alleged liquor rip-off case.
The central company had raided the properties of the previous minister and his son Harish in Raipur, Sukma and Dhamtari districts as a part of a cash laundering investigation into the case late final month.
It subsequently questioned the 71-year-old former minister and his son within the case.
After the raids, Lakhma had claimed that he did not know something in regards to the rip-off and that he was ‘illiterate’, The Indian Specific reported
“They requested me if I knew in regards to the liquor rip-off. I mentioned I noticed it on TV and examine it within the papers nevertheless it didn’t come to my data. I’m an illiterate individual. No matter paper was positioned earlier than me, I signed. On what they took my signature, I have no idea,” he advised the media a day after the raids.
The arrest and subsequent developments
Kawasi Lakhma was referred to as for questioning to the Enforcement Directorate workplace on Wednesday and arrested within the afternoon.
In line with Particular Public Prosecutor Saurabh Kumar Pande, the central company produced the legislator within the court docket of particular PMLA decide Atul Kumar Shrivastav and sought a 14 days custody.
The court docket granted his custodial remand to the ED until January 21, lower than half of the interval that the company sought.
Earlier, speaking to reporters earlier than coming into the courtroom, Lakhma claimed that no doc or perhaps a single penny had been discovered in the course of the raids.
“I’m being despatched to jail in a false case,” he mentioned.
The tribal chief alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Residence Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai had been attempting to suppress the voice of a poor tribal who was additionally the voice of the tribal-dominated Bastar area.
“As panchayat polls are going to happen within the state, they wish to hold me away from the elections,” Lakhma claimed.
Congress chief and former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel accused the ED of performing on the directives of the BJP-led Union authorities.
“The arrest of former minister and senior MLA Kawasi Lakhma ji is an motion taken with the intention of political vendetta. On the directions of its masters sitting within the central authorities, the ED has been conspiring to defame Congress leaders. The complete Congress social gathering stands with Kawasi Lakhma ji,” Baghel mentioned in a submit on ‘X’.
What has ED alleged within the liquor rip-off case?
The ED in a press release had earlier claimed that Lakhma was the primary recipient of the proceeds of crime when he was the excise minister in the course of the Congress regime. Lakhma, as per the ED, used to obtain substantial quantities in money on a month-to-month foundation.
The alleged liquor rip-off, as per the ED, passed off between 2019-22 when Chhattisgarh was dominated by the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress authorities. Lakhma, a six-time MLA from Konta within the Sukma district, was the excise minister then. The rip-off resulted in an enormous loss to the state exchequer and stuffed the pockets of the beneficiaries of the liquor syndicate with greater than ₹2,100 crore, the company had claimed.